


Future of a Hero

by kimurasato



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-01-25 09:49:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1644428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimurasato/pseuds/kimurasato
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny and his friends chase after a ghost stirring up trouble, but it takes an unexpected turn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Future of a Hero

**Author's Note:**

> A trade I did with DecapitatedKitten based on the idea posted [here](http://dannyphantomfanart.tumblr.com/post/85374399295/a-small-idea-v-where-danny-goes-back-in-time-to). For this, Phantom Planet happened but not in the same way as the show. Vlad learned about the Disasteroid and that it was cancelled ghost powers. So instead of being the idiot he was in Phantom Planet, he actually helped with figuring out a way to save Earth from the Disasteroid.

"Come on!" Danny shouted, racing down the hall as he heard the cackle just up ahead of them. "It's getting away!" The footfalls of his friends pounded against the polished tiled flooring of the school hall, but they grew more distant in his ear. Danny tossed a glance over his shoulder, seeing the gap between him and his friends widening.

"You know," Tucker said with a wheeze, "I think I liked it better when he faked being bad at stuff." He stumbled over his feet, but Sam held on tightly to his wrist, pulling him back to his feet before he fell flat on his face.

"Oh, because now you're the only one who looks bad in gym class?" Sam teased with the slight curl on her mouth she reserved only for Tucker. "Maybe you should put the tech down on occasion and work on building up some stamina."

Danny sighed, shaking his head. "Can the little snipes wait until _after_ we've caught the ghost?"

"Why can't Clockwork just capture this ghost on his own?" Tucker wondered out loud.

Danny turned the corner and skidded to a halt. "You can ask him that later if you really want." He glared at the swirling vortex before him, taking up most of the hall. He couldn't even inch past it hugging the wall if he wanted. "Right now, we have a portal to catch before it closes." He grabbed hold of Sam's hand the moment she was in reach then jumped forward as the portal gradually shrank.

"I hope Lancer will give me an extension on that paper," Tucker shouted, his voice tinged with fear.

Danny squeezed his hand around Sam's as a scream threatened to tear from his mouth. Clockwork's portals through times felt like stepping through a waterfall: a quick wash of cold and nothing more. Stepping through this portal, however, Danny felt claws tearing through him as something stretched him thin until he thought all his bones would pop from their sockets and grind to dust and his muscles would rupture from being pressed flat. White filled his vision from the portal, but black crept in around the edges until all he saw was darkness.

"I vote we don't do that again," Tucker groaned.

Danny rubbed at his poor throbbing head as he sat up, his body aching in places he didn't even know could hurt. "Portals should come with a warning," he muttered. "Like," he held up his hands before him, "do not enter unless you want to feel like your insides are being turned into your outsides."

"On the bright side-"

"There's a _bright_ side to this?" Tucker interrupted, earning a glare from Sam.

" _On the bright side_ ," Sam ground out, "we ended up in the same place together. Who knows what would have happened if we had let go of each other going through the portal. We could have each ended up in a different time!"

"Uh, speaking of which," Tucker said, holding up one finger, "when are we exactly? Oh! And how do we even know we ended up in the same time as the ghost?"

Danny sighed, hanging his head when his friends turned their gazes onto him. "Let's just go looking for the ghost. We can worry about the other details after it's safely trapped in the Thermos." He stood up, his muscles protesting the movement, and glanced around the area. The building before him looked like a high school, but it _definitely_ wasn't Casper High. In a flash of light, Danny reverted back to his human form. Until they found out when and where they were, he thought it probably best not to wander around as a ghost. "You, uh, don't think we could have ended up in a parallel universe, right?"

Sam frowned, her brow pinching. "Clockwork didn't say the ghost operated like that though. It just moves forward and backward in time."

"Yeah, but if it's altering little details, that could lead to _really_ big changes," Tucker argued. "Like crush a butterfly in one part of the world and suddenly we're under the rule of an evil dictator in the future."

"Always the optimist, huh?" Sam asked dryly with a flat glare.

"Hey-" Danny interjected, but something called his attention. He strained his ear, listening for what had distracted him.

"Where ya going, Masturds?" asked a man, who Danny might have mistaken for Dash if the voice didn't sound completely different. And over the past year, Dash had turned into a much better friend. Sort of. Better than he was before, though the jock still had some aggression issues to work on.

"Yeah," another man snickered, "aren't you going to start sprouting out more nonsense about ghosts?"

"Like ghosts exist." The woman snorted. "I'm surprised with a name like _Vladimir_ ," she sneered, "you aren't going around claiming vampires exist too."

"Vladimir?" Danny turned to his friends as one eyebrow arched upward. "Masturds? Talking about ghosts? You don't-"

"I wasn't convinced until the vampire comment," Tucker said, but from the looks on his two friend's faces, they clearly reached the same conclusion.

Danny stared up at the high school building, and dread settled in his gut like a block of ice. "I think I know _when_ we are."

"Oh!" Sam's eyes lit up with realization.

"What?" Tucker glanced between his friends. "How do you know?"

Sam sent a flat glare, her hand itching to smack Tucker. "Think. High school." She waved her hands at the building they landed behind. "Vlad." She waved in the direction they heard the bullies. "Getting the picture."

Tucker stared blankly at Sam, the gears in his head working overtime. "Oh!"

"Way to catch up." Sam patted him hard on the shoulder.

Danny was already on his way around the corner of the school building before his friends could pick themselves up from the ground. He ignored their hissed whispering calls as he rounded the building and saw the short teenager pressed against the wall and surrounded by three bigger classmates. The tallest of them cracked the knuckles of his hairy ham fists, and his ogre of a dark face was covered in greasy pimples. He stepped menacingly closer to the short raven haired teen, and Danny recognized what was about to happen from the numerous times last year Dash had done the same to him.

"Danny, what do you think you're doing?" Sam demanded, catching hold of his arm before Danny could march over to the group of teenagers. "If you go over there, you'll mess up the future."

Danny frowned as he glanced back at the teenagers where Mr. Ogre Face was two seconds away from punching Vlad in the face. "I can't just ignore it." He snapped his gaze back onto his friends. "And what if we can stop Vlad from turning evil in the future? Wouldn't that be worth trying to change?" His last attempt when he _begged_ Clockwork to let him go back in time failed miserably, creating an alternate timeline where he ended up not even being born. He knew the risks of messing with time. "Besides, that ghost is already doing enough damage to the timeline. So what if I mess around a little myself to change things for the better?"

"Didn't we just go over the whole butterfly effect thing?" Tucker demanded.

Danny cringed when he heard the familiar sound of a fist slamming into someone. "Stopping Vlad from becoming evil is the _opposite_ of him becoming a total world dominating tyrant." He tore his arm free then stomped over to where the bullies were picking on young Vlad, and he pushed _that_ mind boggling fact into the back of his mind for now. "Hey!" he shouted as he approached the group.

Vlad hunched down after being punched, trying to make himself smaller the same way Danny would do when he got cornered by jocks. He peeked tentatively out from his arms, which he kept raise to protect his face, but it left the rest of his body exposed to future attacks. Danny could already see the beginnings of a bruise forming on Vlad's cheek just under his left eye. The bullies, meanwhile, turned their attention onto him with varying degrees of displeasure. The woman in the group flipped back her obnoxiously perfect blonde hair, but the scowl on her face destroyed any idea of calling her pretty. The second man was the shortest of the bullies, but he still loomed over Vlad's small frame. From the bully's dopey expression, Danny guessed he would be hard pressed to find two brain cells to rub together to produce an idea. It would probably be a poor idea if he _could_ find them.

"Oh, look." The lead bully glowered, which only made him look _more_ like a monster out of some fairy tale. "Another loser wants his daily dosage of fist pounding."

"Oh, a clever one." Danny snorted with a roll of his eyes. "You've got me shaking in my boots."

"You will be when we teach you a lesson for sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong," the woman said, wrinkling her nose as she glanced over his clothes. "And who dressed you? Did you just step out of the-" She faltered at loss because his clothing was clearly from no time period she knew.

"Enough talking," snapped the lead bully. "It's time for some pounding." He punched his fist into his other hand, and grins were _not_ a good look with his face. The bully could curdle milk with an expression like that. He charged forward like a rhino with his head down and ready just slam his entire force into Danny.

Fortunately, Danny had a _lot_ of experience under his belt. He fought ghosts practically on a daily basis. He might have helped in saving the world, and strangely enough he couldn't have done it without Vlad's help since the older half ghost was the one to discover the meteor made of a substance immune to ghost powers hurtling toward the earth. But his heroism didn't stop ghosts from stirring up trouble, though some of them had become sort of friends with him. He also trained with his family. This group of bullies was more like a walk in the park for him now.

Danny sidestepped out of the bully's way. Then he dropped his flat hand down upon the back of the man's head, hitting it in the spot his mother had taught him to strike to incapacitate a human attacker, or ghost possessed attacker. The bully dropped like a rock, landing with enough force Danny was certain the ground shook. Turning to the other bullies, Danny folded his arms with an unimpressed frown.

"Anyone else?" he asked, feigning curiosity.

"Well, I did just get my nails done," the woman said with her gaze upon her fallen buddy. "I don't want to ruin them." She backed away, inching step by step until she finally turned to flee.

Danny bit back a smirk as her dopey friend stumbled over his feet to follow after her. Maybe he was wrong about him not having any brain cells.

"Danny," Tucker whispered in a whiny voice as he and Sam walked over to join him. "I don't think that was a good idea."

"Yeah, and we should be focusing on the ghost," Sam reminded with a frown.

"How much damage could it really do?" Danny asked. Why were his friends getting so bent out of shape about this? He made mistakes every now and then, but things generally worked out for the best in the end.

"You shouldn't have done that."

Danny spun back around to find Vlad had moved away from where he huddled against the wall. His mouth pressed into a thin line, and the glare suggested he wasn't thankful for Danny's intervention. His hands curled around the strap of his bag so tightly his knuckles turned white. The black shirt he wore had little cartoon ghost designs over the front of it, which Danny thought was probably a bad choice if Vlad didn't want to be a target of bullies for his belief in ghosts.

"Hey, he just saved you from getting a major beating," Tucker snapped. "You should be thanking him."

"Right. For today." Vlad scowled at Tucker. Danny stood speechless for a time because though he could see the Vlad he knew in the look on the other teen's face, it was nothing like his Vlad at the same time. "But tomorrow, they'll just beat on me twice as hard."

Danny frowned, almost cringing as he realized the truth of Vlad's statement. "Well, then we'll just have to come back tomorrow to stop them." He placed a foot on the unconscious bully's back and grinned at his brilliant idea. Sam groaned, dropping her face into her hand as she shook her head, clearly thinking this was a bad idea.

"Why?" Vlad demanded. "Why would you do this for me? Who _are_ you?" He hunched up his shoulders with an oddly shy look, which didn't fit with Danny's idea of who Vlad was. "You're just going to make fun of me, aren't you?" He glared accusingly at the three friends. "Pretending to be nice is worse than outright bullying. And I don't need your pity." He pointed a finger right at Danny. "Just you wait! I'm going to find a ghost and prove to the world that they exist."

"Danny, we really don't have time for this," Sam muttered with a quick glance toward Vlad. "We have that _thing_ ," she glared darkly at Danny, "to take care of."

"We can still take care of that," Danny assured her. "And it's probably going to take some time to track it down anyway." His gaze flicked toward Vlad who still glared at them. "So why not spend some time making a new friend?"

"Danny, that's-" Tucker frowned with concern.

"I'm Danny," he said, ignoring his friend's concern as he stuck out his hand toward Vlad. "And we don't think you're crazy for believing in ghosts. In fact, there's some stuff we should probably talk to you about somewhere, uh, a bit more private."

"Danny!" Sam snapped as she grabbed his arm and jerked him around to face her. "You can't seriously be thinking about telling everything."

"Why not?" Danny blinked. "If he knows, maybe he'll make better decisions in the future."

"I don't think that's how it works, Danny," Tucker said, not meeting Danny's gaze in case his friend shot him a look of betrayal.

"I hope you three start making sense," Vlad grumbled with a flat glare. "I do know the number if I need to call some people with strait jackets to come pick you up."

"We're not crazy," Sam argued.

"This would really be better if we talked in private," Danny said with a wince. "Then I promise we'll explain everything." He could feel the glares of his friends digging into his back.

"What about Frank?" Vlad nodded toward the bully still on the ground.

"Can't we just leave him?" Tucker suggested.

Danny sighed tiredly. "No, I suppose we should at least leave him somewhere safe. Ish." He almost hated the moral hero part of him pushing him to do the right thing. Bending down, he hooked his arms under Frank's arms and lifted the hulking man up, his feet dragging on the ground. "Uh, where would be a good place?"

Vlad rolled his eyes with a huff before he led the way around to the front of the school.

"He sure was a cheerful kid," Tucker muttered.

"Yeah, because getting picked leaves people with such a wonderful and happy disposition," Danny grumbled, recalling his own experiences with bullies.

"So where exactly did the three of you escape from?" Vlad eyed them suspiciously and kept his distance from them.

"We didn't escape from anywhere," Danny said, grunting under the weight of the bully. "I just don't believe in ignoring someone who needs help."

"I really hate his hero complex sometimes," Sam muttered.

When they reached the front of the school, Danny leaned Frank's buddy up against the wall next to the front doors where someone was sure to find him at some point. "So, uh, got a private place in mind?" He glanced hopefully at Vlad.

The teen debated for a time, frowning in uncertainty and refusing to look at the trio. "I suppose," he said slowly, reluctantly, "we could go back to my place. My parents won't be home, and it's just a few minutes away." He took a step then turned to glare at them. "You better not be crazy people."

Danny shrugged when his friends glared at him. "Well, we _do_ sound kind of crazy," he admitted. "Whatever. Come on." He followed half a step behind Vlad, and his friends reluctantly trailed after him. They had a ghost to capture, he knew that, and he also realized wasting time on Vlad wasn't the wisest choice. They could hunt down the ghost, snag it, and be back to the present before anyone missed them. But he couldn't resist attempting to make a better future for Vlad.

After the world was safe, their secret lives were no longer secret. Vlad rejected the praise people gave him for his help in saving the world. Danny frowned, thinking Vlad would be happy the whole world was celebrating his heroism. But it seemed like none of it made him happy. Vlad didn't even bother making any new schemes to steal his mother. The change unsettled Danny, and he wasn't entirely sure why when he should be happy Vlad wasn't playing the scheming villain anymore.

As promised, in a few minutes they arrived at a small two-story house with an attic. The shutter on a window on the second level of the house had fallen off ages ago. The pale canary yellow paint on the siding chipped and peeled, leaving behind a faded gray. The grass had turned yellow under the sun and from lack of water. It was... nothing like Danny imagined as Vlad's home. He was used to the grandeur of the castle Vlad owned in Wisconsin. He expected to see everything directed green and gold to celebrate Vlad's love for the Packers. This house belonged to a low income family who couldn't even afford basic repairs. Or maybe, they simply didn't care to put in the time and money to make repairs.

"This is weird," Tucker mumbled as the three friends stared up at the house, standing at the end of the small walkway while Vlad had already reached the front door, unlocking it and pushing it open for them.

"I know he said he stole his fortune," Danny whispered, somehow finding his voice despite his shock, "but I always thought he came from money. You know, he just had that sophisticated air about him of someone that grew up with money and took, like, fancy etiquette lessons to learn how to sit properly and hold out his pinky when he sips tea and all those silverware rules for eating at those super fancy and expensive restaurants."

"Were you coming in?" Vlad called from the open doorway. "Because if you're fine out there, that's fine with me." The door inched closed, and Danny had a feeling Vlad wouldn't be too willing to open it again if they pounded on the door after it was shut and locked.

Danny jogged up to the front door, not missing the sighs from his friends. They thought it was a terrible idea, but Danny had his mind made up. He passed through the front door before it closed, and Vlad glared off to the side, clearly thinking he would get the chance to avoid talking it up with the crazy people.

"Uh," Danny turned to his friends, "why don't you go get some ice? The bruise looks pretty bad. Me and him have stuff to discuss."

"Danny, you really shouldn't-"

"When I have I ever screwed up?" Danny lifted his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

"I give at least fifty examples," Sam stated flatly. "And they all occurred within the last twenty-four hours."

Danny sighed, his body deflating. "Just trust me." He gave his friends a shove toward what he hoped would be the kitchen. "All right. You and me." He pointed between him and Vlad. "Time to talk."

"Your friends don't seem to approve of you talking to me." Vlad tossed a glance over his shoulder as he led the way up the stairs.

"Yeah, well," Danny shrugged, "difference of opinions. Just listen to me, and we'll have everything cleared up in no time." He followed Vlad up to the second floor then up again to the attic. It wasn't much of a room, small, and Danny had to crouch somewhat when the ceiling slanted.

Vlad dumped his bag by his desk, which was more of a wooden board stacked on a few bricks. The teen would have to sit on the floor to use it, but it was better than nothing. It was pushed up against the wall with a single window in the room: a small circle with spider webbing panes. Vlad walked over to the mattress pushed to another wall and dropped onto it.

"So?" Vlad glanced expectantly at Danny as he picked up the guitar resting near his bed. "Are you going to start? Or should I start regretting letting a bunch of crazy people into my house?" His fingers easily found their places on the neck, and he strummed absently at the cords.

Danny stared, his mind grinding to a halt and refusing to process the scene for a moment. Vlad? Playing the guitar? Okay. He did remember his parents mentioning that his father and Vlad were in a band together in college, but for some reason, it didn't register in his head that Vlad actually knew how to play guitar. He shrugged it off, figuring it was some lame thing his father and Vlad put together but were never an actual thing. Like they said they were putting together a band but it was all talk.

"Right." Danny bobbed his head and took a seat on the ground, leaning back on his hands. "So here's the thing. My friends and I? We just made a jump back from the future."

Vlad snorted out a laugh, his fingers pausing in the middle of the random song he was playing. "You expect me to believe that?" His eyebrow lifted in a look clearly saying he thought Danny was crazy. "Right. You all stay here, and I'll just go call the crazy farm people to pick you up."

"No, I'm serious. We came back here to hunt down a ghost that's been messing around with the timeline. It hasn't done any major damage yet, but we can't just leave it alone. We _have_ to find it and stop it."

Vlad frowned, anger flashing in his dark blue eyes. "Are you making fun of me? You heard those bullies teasing me about believing in ghosts so you made up this stupid story? Is this some kind of prank? You get me to follow you like I'm helping you and then there's the rest of the high school waiting and you pants me or something?"

"No!" Danny lifted his hands before him and shook them. "I'm not like that. I would never do that." He pressed one hand to the floor again as he raked the other hand through his raven locks. "You see. In the future, we know each other."

Vlad squints at him. "How far into the future are you from? Two months?"

"Uh," Danny thinks hard on that, though math wasn't his strongest class, "closer to thirty years."

Vlad's eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. "What? Am I, like, some creepy old dude stalking little boys to get my jollies off or something?" He pulled a face, cringing away from Danny in disgust. "You're joking, right?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" Danny shuddered at the added creepy factor to the fact that future Vlad stalked after him ordering him to become his son. "Ugh, let me start over." He tapped at his chin in thought. "Where to begin? Ah! Okay. See. In college, you meet these friends that believe in ghosts like you."

"Cool!" Vlad's eyes widened with excitement. "Can't I meet them now?"

"That, uh, would probably mess up the timeline."

"Isn't this already doing that?" Vlad stared dully at him.

"Just listen." Danny heaved a sigh. He would never get through this if Vlad kept interrupting. "You meet them and you all work on various projects, but the most important one is the Proto-Portal. But there's this little," Danny squinted and pressed index finger to thumb, "problem that goes wrong, and you get blasted in the face, giving you this horrible case of ecto acne. It," he leaned his head toward one side, "also gives you ghost powers. You become the first half ghost."

"That's not possible. Okay. Now you're _really_ trying to mess with me."

"You want proof?" Danny got to his feet. "Because I'm the second half ghost to ever exist."

"Yeah ri-" Vlad choked on his words as Danny transformed in a quick flash of light.

"Why did you show him that?" Sam groaned from the doorway as she and Tucker arrived with a towel filled with ice for Vlad. "This is seriously your worst idea ever." She stomped over to where Vlad sat and shoved the towel of ice at him. Vlad couldn't react, staring in stunned silence at Danny standing before him in the black and white jumpsuit with his eyes glowing green and his hair white as snow.

"That," Vlad said, slowly returning to reality, "is so awesome!" His eyes lit up with excitement. "And I can do that in the future? Sweet! Can I become one now?"

"Great." Sam smacked Danny on his arm. "You started his path toward evil at an even younger age."

"Wait. What?" Vlad blinked owlishly at her, and the expression was too odd for Danny.

"Uh, see." Danny rubbed at the back of his neck. "After the accident, you kind of get all obsessed with my mom and blame my dad that you didn't end up with her, so you use your ghost powers to build up this huge fortune. You're a billionaire! But then you try to kill my dad so you can have my mom. Then you find out what I am." Danny pressed his hands to his chest. "And you want to make me your son."

"Wait. Wait!" Vlad held up his hands. "You mean I'm evil but I'm _rich_ in the future?"

"Yeah, the key part there is evil, little man," Tucker said, frowning at the excitement on Vlad's face.

"Uh," Vlad glanced around the attic obviously, "whatever. I'm gonna be rich. I won't have to live in a crumby house anymore." He looked thoughtful for a moment then turned his gaze onto Danny. "So with these ghost powers, can I get revenge on all the bullies that harass me every day at school?"

"Don't you think that's wrong?" Danny frowned.

"And it's right that they beat me up nearly every day?" Vlad snapped back with a glare. "Have _you_ ever been bullied? Oh. Let me guess. Bullying doesn't exist in the future."

Changing back, Danny walked over and sat down next to Vlad. "No, I got bullied pretty much every day too. And yeah, maybe the idea of getting back at them sounds fun. But it won't change anything. It won't make you feel any better."

"You sure about that? Because I think it would feel butter biscuit fantastic to teach them a thing or two."

Danny almost laughed out loud because - Oh gosh! Teen Vlad cursed using baked goods - and it was hilarious to him. "Maybe," he agreed, forcing back the laugh. "It might make you feel good for a while. But you'll just be stooping to the same level as the people that bully you. Do you really want to be like them?"

Vlad frowned, dropping his gaze to his guitar. "I guess not. But so, I'm just supposed to suffer being bullied? How is _that_ fair?"

Danny looked to his friends, but Tucker shrugged and Sam pointedly ignored him, leaving everything to him to explain. He sighed, hanging his head. "It's not fair at all. No one should have to be bullied." He struggled for a moment, trying figure out how to get through to Vlad on this topic. "But just because you have the power to do something bad doesn't mean you should do it. I," he held out his hand before him, staring at it before slowly curling it into a fist, "could have let bitterness over being bullied and the whole situation consume me. I could have sought revenge on the people I thought wronged me, but I decided to do something good with my powers. I decided to protect people with my power. Protect them from things they can't fight. Stop the ghosts threatening the lives of people."

"Not all ghosts are evil," Vlad pointed out dryly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know that." Danny smiled somewhat. "I've actually made friends with some of the ghosts I used to fight."

"Right." Vlad's mouth pursed into a thin line as he eyed Danny. "So you have this perfect little life, and I turn into some evil, but filthy rich, monster?"

"Yeah, uh, sort of." Danny's brow pinched together. "Maybe not so much with the evil anymore. I mean, I haven't exactly seen or heard from you all that much in the past year. Not since you helped saved the world from the Disasteroid that was going to crash into the Earth. I think - I think you could still become good. I don't know. Maybe something changed in you just before you found out about the Disasteroid and you're starting to change from your evil ways."

"So what exactly did you expect to happen by telling me all of this?" Vlad raised in eyebrows skeptically. "That I would take this all to heart and change my evil ways in the future? Did you stop to think that maybe being good in the future makes it so I _don't_ discover the Disasteroid and it crashes into the Earth and kills us all?"

"Okay. Maybe I didn't think all of this through," Danny grumbled. Even Vlad was ganging up on him now! "I guess-" He sighed, rubbing at his forehead. "I guess I just wanted to spare you a future of bitter loneliness. Maybe if you learned what was ahead now, you might make different choices. Maybe you could stay friends with my parents. You could," he rolled a shoulder awkwardly, "be like an uncle to me in the future. Stop staring at me like that!" He glared at Vlad, who was frowning severely back at him. "I just don't want you to be miserable and alone. Okay? I saw the look on your face after everything was done with the Disasteroid. People were praising you for your part in it, but you weren't happy. If anything, you looked more miserable than ever. The world saw you as a hero, accepted your ghost half, but it was like-" Danny's eyebrows lifted as something occurred to him. "It was like you couldn't forgive yourself for your past. Like you believed you didn't deserve to celebrated as a hero."

"Maybe that's right," Vlad mumbled sadly, toeing at the ground. "Maybe I don't deserve to be a hero."

Danny felt his heart breaking as he stared at Vlad and listened to his words. The thought had stirred in the back of his mind, but it was only in this moment that he recognized it. He believed in Vlad. He believed Vlad could change and become a hero. The heart breaking fact, though, was Vlad didn't have that same belief in himself. Danny surprised all of them by pulling Vlad into a tight hug, squeezing his arms around the other teenager.

"I believe you can be a hero," Danny mumbled quietly into Vlad's ear.

After an awkward silence, Vlad patted him on the shoulder. "Um, that's, uh, swell and all. But don't we have a time messing ghost to capture?"

"Uh, yeah." Danny pulled away, trying to act casual about what just happened. "Right. We should - Yeah. Let's go get that ghost."


	2. Penalty of Youth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the hunt for the ghost stirring up trouble continues, Danny and Vlad suffer an unfortunate encounter.

"Are you sure it's okay for us to stay with you?" Danny asked as they walked down the street. Already a week passed since he and his friends arrived in the past, but they were having little luck in capturing the ghost.

"Yeah," Vlad shrugged, "my parents are always working, so they'll never notice that you've been living in the attic. And my sister already went off to college."

Hearing that Vlad had a sister still surprised him. Danny had never heard his parents mention Vlad having a sister, and in his time, he doubted Vlad would divulge that kind of personal information to the "punk kid" who kept ruining all his schemes. Now that he knew, he wondered whatever became of Vlad's sister. Or his parents, for that matter. When he and his family stayed at the Dairy King's castle, he never saw any pictures of Vlad's family. He lowered his gaze, not liking the idea of Vlad severing connections with his family, especially when he remembered the Vlad of his time talking about how all he wanted was a family who loved him.

"It's not too cramped up there, is it?" Vlad asked, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his coat. The neighborhood was quiet, and Danny almost couldn't believe there was a ghost lurking around somewhere.

Danny shook his head. "I wouldn't say it's all that comfortable though." He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. It got a bit chilly sleeping in the attic, so he and his friends had shoved together their sleeping mats and slept tangled up under a mound of blankets to fight off the cold. It reminded him of when he was little and went camping with his family.

"I'll try to make it more comfortable in any way possible if I can." Vlad glanced around, his blue eyes alert for activity. "Are you sure there's actually a ghost here? Maybe you got it wrong. Or maybe the ghost jumped to a different time the moment you got here."

The thought had passed through his head. He would be lying if he said it didn't. "If it had already moved on, we would have been contacted by now," Danny explained. Clockwork wouldn't leave them stranded to mess with the timeline if the ghost they were hunting wasn't still in this time. Since the Master of Time didn't suck them through a portal back to his tower, Danny could only assume the ghost was still here. Sam and Tucker were checking another area of the neighborhood, spreading out their search party.

Vlad stared at him, his mouth thinning unpleasantly. "I thought you would be better at this."

Danny's eye twitched. "It's not that easy!" He ground his teeth to keep from snapping any further at Vlad. After a deep breath to calm himself, he added, "Ghosts can be rather difficult to find. Sam and Tuck have one of my parents inventions that can scan for ghost energy, but if I'm too close to it, it just points back to me because I'm half ghost. I have my own way of sensing ghosts, but so far, it hasn't gone off. Once we locate it, it should be easy to catch."

Vlad appeared doubtful. "Let's make a bet. See who can find the ghost first."

Danny laughed. "You think you can find the ghost before me?"

"Of course." Vlad smirked, and Danny felt a tickle of wariness.

"All right." Danny returned the smirk, though the look on Vlad's face left him feeling worried. He might have bested Vlad in the future, but the man was quite smart. This Vlad had the same air of confidence around him, causing a tickle of doubt in Danny's own skills. But what did he have to worry about? He had a ghost sense. This Vlad didn't even have his ghost powers yet. The advantage was his.

His smugness lasted approximately five seconds. Then a chill ran down his spine, forcing a gasp from the half ghost.

"Ah. A bet."

Danny and Vlad both twisted toward the source of the voice. He swallowed as he stared at the ghost floating before them. The ghost had its legs crossed like it sat on an invisible chair, and a wide grin split its face. Danny wasn't entirely sure if this ghost had a gender.

"But neither of you found me." The ghost tapped a finger to its chin. "I guess that means you both lose." Its grin turned cruel as its eyes glowed bright and red. "Time to find out what punishment you get."

"What?" Danny shouted, but the ghost ignored him. A giant wheel appeared behind him, split up into more than a dozen sections. Each section had a different symbol on it. What they meant, though, Danny wasn't sure. The ghost grabbed hold of a silver handle along the outside of the wheel and gave it a hard spin.

"Is this normal?" Vlad asked, nervousness creeping into his voice.

Danny shook his head. "We weren't able to get close enough to the ghost before to learn what kind of powers it has." He reached behind him for the Thermos he kept on him. "But this should be easy. Just get him in-"

"Ah! That's a good one!" The ghost's laughter made Danny freeze. The wheel stopped spinning, a triangular tag at the top pointing to one of the divided sections. The ghost's grin filled Danny with dread.

The wheel exploded. Danny flinched, automatically reaching up to cover his face as smoke and confetti rained down on them. Beside him, Vlad coughed and waved one arm, trying to disperse some of the smoke. When all was clear again, they were alone. The ghost had vanished again in the distraction.

"Great," Danny muttered. "Now we have-" His body tensed, and his eyes grew wider. That didn't sound like his voice? What happened? Was that what the ghost did? What good did it do the ghost to mess with his voice?

"Uh," came a squeaky voice next to him, "I think we have a problem."

Danny glanced over at Vlad then nearly fell on his rump when he stumbled back a step. Vlad was even younger than before! Danny dropped his gaze to his own body, and the color drained from his face. He hadn't escaped the ghost's punishment. "I don't wanna be a kid again!"

"I'm not exactly happy about this either," Vlad pointed out flatly as he folded his arms. "This is entirely your fault."

"My fault? You're the one that suggested the stupid bet in the first place!" Danny paused in his anger to consider that for a moment. Did the ghost only appear before them because they had made a bet? Could that be a trigger for the ghost using its powers?

"It's not like I knew that would happen!" Vlad snapped back, his face scrunched up and red with anger. "Because I can tell you I wasn't exactly wanting to repeat childhood today. Or any day for that matter!"

"It's going to be all right." Danny placed a hand on Vlad's shoulder. "We'll capture that ghost and get everything back to normal. First, maybe we should find Tuck and Sam."

Some of the redness faded from Vlad's face, but he still appear quite crossed about the situation. "I guess we can be thankful that ghost at least shrank our clothes with us." Then he squinted and leaned over too close.

"Hey!" Danny protested, holding Vlad back as heat crept onto his cheeks.

"Are those freckles?"

His blush darkened, and Danny slapped a hand over his face. "Ugh! Those didn't fade away until I was ten!"

"You don't like your freckles?" Vlad raised an eyebrow.

"I was bullied enough already. I didn't need freckles giving the other kids another reason to tease me." Danny grabbed Vlad's hand. "Let's just go find my friends."

"You say you have these ghost powers, but you just stood there and let that ghost do this to us. How exactly do you beat me in the future?"

"That smug cockiness of yours doesn't do you a lot of good," Danny muttered as he glanced around the street. "Okay. It doesn't look like there's anyone around. I'm going to fly us to my friends. That'll be faster. I'm going gho-"

"Wait." Vlad stopped him with a raised hand. "You're identity is supposed to be a secret. But you cry out that you're going ghost before you transform?"

Danny's mouth pursed thin, and his face burned brightly as he heard Vlad's words from their first meeting echoing in his ears. "S-So what if I do?"

Vlad stared dully at him. "It sounds like foolishness. If you don't want people finding out about you, it would be wiser not to have a battle cry that gives away your identity."

Danny puffed out his cheeks but swallowed back any biting retorts that came to his mind. He transformed to his ghost form, ignoring Vlad's gasp of surprise. _I'm really glad that still works_ , he thought as he stepped behind Vlad and hooked his arms under the other boy's arms. For a moment, he feared he lost his ghost powers when that ghost made them younger. But thankfully, the ghost's ability only affected his age. After turning them invisible, he lifted off the ground and flew toward the section of the neighborhood where Tucker and Sam were looking for the ghost.

Vlad tensed the moment they were in the air. Then as they soared over the small neighborhood, he relaxed in Danny's arms. "This isn't so bad," Vlad said over his shoulder with almost a laugh in his voice, and a smile stretched over Danny's face.

"Ah! There they are!" After several minutes of circling around, Danny spotted his friends walking down a street. Tucker held one of his parents' devices to detect ghost energy while Sam manned the only other Thermos they had.

"Wait! You're going too fast!" Vlad flailed.

"I know what I'm doing!" The arm waving didn't help with his flying. Even though he had done this hundreds of times before, Danny realized too late that something wasn't right. His experience was with a fourteen year old body, not an eight year old one. He misjudged some factors, like his younger body didn't have the same strength as his older body. After flying around to find his friends, his energy was spent. He reverted back to human, and they tumbled the last few feet to the ground, landing in a tangle of limbs in front of his friends.

"Danny!" his friends gasped.

"What happened to you?" Sam's eyes grew wide when she saw the two of them.

Danny untangled himself from Vlad, who shoved him as they parted, then stood. "We, uh, had a little run in with the ghost."

Tucker snickered. "Little."

Sam smacked him on the shoulder with a loud noise and glared at him.

"It's not funny." Danny huffed and folded his arms. "But because of this, we might have figured out how to lure the ghost into a trap. He appeared to us when we made a bet."

"What was the bet?" Tucker questioned.

"That's not important."

"I still think I would have found the ghost first," Vlad said. "But the point is, if we make another bet, we might be able to make it appear before us again."

"Then we just need to be ready for it and capture it before it can do anything." After a week of searching unsuccessfully for the ghost, Danny finally felt a surge of confidence.

"And the ghost got the jump on you and turned you into kids?" Tucker scratched at the side of his head.

"He spun this wheel," Vlad explained. "I guess it was some sort of penalty thing since neither of us _found_ the ghost. It appeared before us."

"That sounds a bit like the ghost cheated." Sam frowned as she folded her arms.

"Which is why this time we need to be prepared and trap it in the Thermos before it can spin its wheel," Danny said.

"And that will reverse this?" Vlad gestured to their eight year old bodies.

"Hopefully." Danny winced. "If not, I'm sure Clockwork will be able to fix it. Having us remain like this would interfere with time, and he wouldn't allow that to happen." Judging from his expression, Danny could tell Vlad wasn't too pleased with that answer. "Let's focus first on capturing the ghost. We can't do anything about what it did to us until we do." After a minute of grumpy glaring, Vlad sighed and agreed to help work out a plan to trap the ghost.


End file.
